Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt: By JOHN P. KENNEDY. Philadelphia: Lee & Blanchard.

The fact of a second edition of these instructive volumes being called for, sufficiently indicates the standing which they deserve so well, and have so rapidly taken in the estimation of the public. It is surprising that so few memoirs of the distinguished American contemporaries of William Wirt have been published. This kind of literature, so successful in France, would be eminently so in this country, where so many great names, endeared to the people, still await the labors of the biographer, and where writers are to be found, like the present editor, so fully competent to the task. The career of William Wirt is that of a highly successful lawyer. It does not abound in incident. But the high station he filled, his popularity at the bar, the important causes in which his eloquence was displayed, and his correspondence with the greatest men of the nation, would make his life interesting, even from a pen much less qualified than that of John P. Kennedy. For the sake of giving an idea of this writer's style, we will extract a short passage on the birth of the democratic party so called of late years a party, which now offers a fair field for the labors of the historian, since its rise, its progress, and its fall, belong to a not very distant past, and furnish those requisites of a full and complete action, which are deemed necessary for the effect of a narrative:

"The election terminated in favor of General Jackson. He was inaugurated President of the United States, on the 4th of March, 1829. On this day, the democratic party, which had been predominant in the administration of the affairs of the general government for twenty-eight years, surrendered its power into the hands of that new party, which had been brought together by the popularity of the hero of New Orleans. The new party was a miscellaneous one. It embraced all that portion of the federalists who were anxious to come into power,-by no means a small host. It absorbed a large number of the young politicians, who had grown up to manhood during the period of General Jackson's military career. It attracted and embodied such portions of the masses of the people, as conceived the chief magistracy to be an appropriate reward for distinguished military exploits-always a large number in every government. The leaders in this combination were eager and practised politicians, bred in the schools of some of the parties, which had heretofore divided the country. Their political creed, therefore, was various, according to the school in which each had been educated; but it was accomodating, and sufficiently held in the back-ground to enable it to await events. The opinions of the chief him

self were so far indefinite as to give each section of his party hopes of finding it an easy matter to comply with his taste, in respect to measures. Old democrats and federalists were united in his cabinet, without any visible contrariety of position. It was an era of surrender and compromise of old antipathies, with an implied promise of silence, for the future, on old topics. By-gones were to be by-gones. The destination of the party was to be settled hereafter. Its principles and measures were to be left to the chapter of accidents. For the present, all differences were submerged beneath the General's unbounded popularity. This was the condition of that new party, which had just overthrown a political domination of twenty-eight years, and which was fated itself to be overthrown in twenty years more."

Roland Cashel. By CHARLES LEVER. With IIlustrations by PHIZ. New York: Harper & Brothers.

The author of Charles O'Malley is the last person from whose pen we should have expected a work like Roland Cashel. Heretofore he has generally been content to let his fancy run riot among those scenes peculiar to Ireland, which he is so well competent to describe. The slightest thread of fiction was, in his hands, a sufficient canvas for the rich embroidery of anecdote and fun which his well stored memory and his epigrammatic genius readily supplied. In the novel now before us he has taken a somewhat loftier aim. He has adopted the artifice of an intricate plot, whose developments, apart from details, are sufficient to interest and excite the reader. Besides, he has kept in view a moral truth, whose illustration forms the graver object of the work. His conception is to show a young man, every way qualified to be an ornament of society, suddenly acquiring enormous wealth, and becoming a member of the proprietary aristocracy of Ireland -a young man, thus qualified and situated, and who, nevertheless, and in spite of the best intentions in the world, turns the blessing into a curse for others, as well as himself, and wholly neglects the high trust reposed in him, and this through sheer ignorance of the real duties and responsibilities attendant upon wealth. In making his selection for a hero, the author was somewhat embarrassed. No youth, born and educated in Great Britain, could be supposed to possess the ignorance which the subject required, without also being tainted with qualities peculiar to the lower classes in that country, and which would disqualify him for the spirited part of the hero of a British drama in high life. The hero, therefore, must be a youth, educated abroad; and the greater the contrast between the habits of his former life, and

those of the class into which he would be thrown, by his sudden acquisition of landed property in Ireland, the better for the purpose of the author. Long must the author have pondered ere he solved his problem. We wonder that he did not feign his hero brought up in the United States. Surely, no contrast could have been greater than that between the principles of equality and political justice, received here in early life, and the narrow prejudices of the privileged classes of Great Britain. Perhaps, however, this solution of the difficulty would have carried Mr. Lever too far. Perhaps, in the contest between two such different modes of viewing life, the young stranger's ideas must have appeared too sensible and just; those of his new friends, too bigoted and arriere. The author brings his hero to Ireland, from the semi-piratical naval service of the late Colombian Republic. Possessor of enormous wealth, suddenly acquired, gifted with all the attributes of novel-heroism, and desirous withal to administer his high stewardship for the good of his fellow-beings, but, inexperienced in the ways of the old world, Roland becomes the dupe of designing adventurers, and soon learns, through sad experience, that the art of doing good, is most difficult to acquire. The manner in which the hero illustrates the truth he intended to establish, is beyond all praise.

There is one character, whose presence in this novel we regret. It is that of Tom Linton. He is a thorough villain in high life, cold, perfidious, unprincipled, and heartless. He has not one single redeeming trait. For the high intellectual faculties wherewith he is endowed, only aggravate his enormous guilt. Not even the pride of station, or the pride of ambition, seems to lend one good impulse to his callous heart. He evinces no affection for any human being. His love for the Lady Kilgoff of the novel, is, it would seem, purposely shown in a light which gives no relief to his detestable nature. It seems to have been the author's predetermined aim to depict a monstrous embodiment of all that is evil. Now, we believe that the portraiture of such a character is not only a libel against human nature, but, also, a blunder in art.

A System of Ancient and Mediaval Geography. For the use of Schools and Colleges: By CHARLES ANTHON, L. L. D., &c. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Professor Anthon bids fair to leave behind him the fame of the most indefatigable compiler of modern times. There is scarcely any walk of classical literature which his laborious erudition has not invaded. He could not have applied his industrious research to a subject that stood more in need of comprehensive illustration, than ancient and mediæval geography. The reader is not to understand, from this double title, that the work now before us proposes, systematically, to expound the obscure and ever changing political geography of the middle ages. The knowledge of the ancients concerning the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is traced from its earliest ascertained origin, down to the period when the subversion of the Roman Empire effaced old boundaries from the map of the world. Mediæval details are spa

ringly added, in particular cases, where the importance of the subject requires them.

Mr. Anthon has adopted a commendable method in the disposition of his task. He treats of the great territorial divisions first, in a comprehensive manner, which leaves a clear, general impression upon the reader's mind, and afterwards, with such details as may appear necessary, gathering together, in the shape of notes, such explanatory observations as he deems necessary to illustrate the text, or to account for his preference in cases where authorities conflict. These "observations" generally contain lucid summaries of such historical and ethnological questions as the text suggests.

Considering the vast range of the work, the darkness of the subject, and the immense number of authorities consulted, it is to be presumed that oversights must have occurred in this first edition, which the author, at a future period, will correct. Cursory as our own perusal has been, several instances have attracted our notice, where, without attempting to decide between Mr. Anthon and our own former teachers, we saw that either they or he must be wrong. Not a few passages also might be cited where our author is in glaring contradiction with himself. For example, when we read (p. 4) that the Basque was a branch of the Celtic, we fancied that Mr. Anthon must have discovered some new facts in philology, which overturned what we had been led to consider a well established theory, and which also set at nought some very agreeable hypotheses of our own thereanent. But we found consolation at page 158, where the author, entrenching himself behind the formidable authority of W. Von Humboldt, bids us rest assured that the Basque is not of Celtic, but of Iberian, and, therefore, remotely, of Flemish origin. A conclusion, perfectly in accordance with facts ascertained from widely different sources, and all tending to prove that the interesting people who inhabit that section of France and Spain, where the beautiful Basque language is still spoken, (a language which Montaigne almost regrets is not his own,) are the sole surviving representatives of the oldest and purest stock in Europe -perhaps in the world.

No maps or plans accompany the work; our author refers us, in his preface, to Findley's Classical Atlas, as being I the best collection of classical maps for its size that has hitherto appeared." We cannot help thinking that the general reader, who requires Professor Anthon's work chiefly as a book of reference, would have been better pleased with a few maps, representing, on a small scale, so much of the world as Ptolemy knew of.

History of William the Conqueror : By JACOB ABBOTT, with engravings. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Mr. Abbott has, it seems, determined to become the Plutarch of young readers. His series of biographical sketches is one of the most useful productions of the age. We would recommend it not only as furnishing instruction in a pleasing and intelligible shape for the young, but also as a text book for many who have passed the age of sys

tematic tuition, and desire to gain information, without overtasking minds harassed with the daily cares of life. Nay, more: we feel certain that scholars, even of unusual attainments, could nowhere refresh their historical recollections so usefully and agreeably as in the pages of Mr. Abbott. The publishers, too, have neglected nothing to make these little books acceptable in outward form. They are uniformly bound in a neat and appropriate dress. The title-pages are bright with gold, and many colored arabesques, and the cuts with which they abound, are worthy of artists of much higher pretensions. Those in the History of William the Conqueror, signed " W. Roberts," are beautiful specimens of art.

Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art. Rudolph Garrigue, No. 2 Barclay street, New York.

We have lying before us Part 5th of this admirable Encyclopedia. The illustrations of this portion are chiefly of Natural History; inconographs of fish, serpents, lizards and birds, exquisitely engraved. This work is, in its way, beyond praise. In a previous number we have given a full account of it, with terms of subscription. It must have been gotten up at a vast expense. Every thing of interest in the entire range of art and science will be represented and described in this truly Encyclopedic work. The price of each number is one dollar; and contains twenty quarto plates, covered with elaborate engravings.

The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. Edited by his son, the Rev. CHARLES CUTHBERT SOUTHEY, M. A., Curate of Plumbland, Cumberland. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Robert Southey had passed the meridian of life, and was in the full enjoyment of great literary renown, when he undertook, in a series of letters to his friend, John May, to retrace the eventful story of his life. The opening chapters of this autobiography, which the work now before us contains, may be considered as models of this style of writing, and are distinguished for an easy garrulousness, and a digressive fondness of detail, which no one would have expected at the hands of "Bob Southey, raving." Some of the characters, which his masterly hand has sketched in these rambling recollections of early life, though strongly marked with the stamp of truth, are so original, or, at least, so unusual, that they would furnish matter for any quantity of novels. The portrait of his uncle, William Tyler, would be accounted a piece of rare good fortune by some writers of fiction. The early indications of Southey's genius do not lose any of their value for being told by himself. Many dramatic writers would do well to take warning from the words of little Bob Southey, when he was about eight or nine years old: "It is the easiest thing in the world to write a play; for, you know you have only to think what you would say, if you were in the place of the characters, and to make them say it." Only the precocious child was not aware that this faculty of being able to place oneself in the stead of

an imaginary character, is one of the loftiest attributes of genius.

It is to be deeply regretted that the author of Kehama did not continue these recollections down to a late period of his life. His son, who takes up the unfinished theme, suggests that the sensitive bard shrank from the further prosecution of a task, which, at the particular period where the "Recollections" end, was attended by circumstances of a painful nature. The vast number of Southey's own letters which the Curate of Plumbland intervenes in his narrative, gives it almost the air of an autobiography.

Dictionary of Mechanics, Engine Work, and Engineering. OLIVER BYRNE, Editor. D. Appleton & Co.: New York. 1850.

The Messrs. Appletons have been for some time employing the ability of very learned translators and compilers upon this truly elegant and valuable publication. We understand that they have invested a very large sum of money in the undertaking, and from the specimens before us we have formed the highest opinion of the value and success of their enterprise. Every thing in mechanics is here fully explained, and illustrated with extremely elegant illustrations, with lettered explanations, as accurate as modern attention can make them, and almost rendering the letter press unnecessary. The most complicated machinery of cloth weaving, even, of steam engines, the internal construction of boilers and furnaces, are minutely described. The number before us, which is the second of the series, contains a minute and expanded description of the Croton aqueduct. Every portion of that extraordinary work being described and represented with the minutest care. This work is a desideratum, the most elegant thing of its kind, and if carried out in the spirit of its commencement, the most valuable. Its form is large octavo, exquisitely printed on fine paper. The separate numbers are sold for 25 cents each.

The Modern Housewife or Menagere. Comprising nearly 1000 receipts. By ALEXIS SOYER, author of the "Gastronomic Regenerator." Edited by an American Housekeeper. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1850.

It would require a year's acquaintance with such a book as this, and a much more extensive knowledge of cookery than is expected in an editor, to pronounce upon its merits. The name of Soyer, a celebrated cook, attached to it, will ensure its popularity. It contains an immense number of economic and judicious receipts for the preparation of every meal of the day, with those of the nursery and sick room; together with minute directions for family management in all its branches; and if it goes near to fulfil the promise of its title page, must be a perfect treasure for house-keepers.

Philo. An Evangeliad. By the author of " Margaret," a Tale of the Real and Ideal. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 1850.

A good neighbor who plants an offence upon his door-step, need not expect visitors; and a poet who occupies the first ten pages of his poem with the most flat, insufferable common-place, need hardly expect readers. With feelings, we confess it, of hope and expectation, we commenced the reading of this poem, and with all sincerity and gravity delivered the first few pages of it aloud; but as the effect was directly the reverse of that intended by the author, we found it impossible to proceed. Here we have an angel coming down by appointment to meet a real Yankee, who enters into a very common-place conversation with him, and acts as a kind of cicerone to the heavenly visitant, showing him a church, and saying "that is a church," showing him pews and a pulpit, and assuring him that those are pews, and that that is a pulpit. The angel understood English, and either there are pews in heaven, which we seriously doubt at least, not straight backed ones-or the angel had a vague notion of the meaning of the words pew and pulpit out of his dictionary, else there were little profit in telling him that this was a pew and that was a pulpit. But the absurdity of the thing is too broad for comment, and the author who could perpetrate such nonsense, is either hoaxing us, or he is a solemn trifler. This entire Evangeliad, we take it, is a mistake. The author has a theory that the ideal is to be sought in the real, but he entirely overlooks the distinction between the real and the common-place; a mortal sin in poetry.

New York; Past, Present, and Future: By E. PORTER BELDEN, Projector of the "Model of New York." New York: George P. Putnam. 1850.

In this work Mr. Belden has furnished the traveller in New York with a full statistical account

of everything noticeable in the great metropolis It is a complete and satisfactory stranger's guide. One half of the volume is occupied by advertisements, directing the stranger to the best stores and wholesale business establishments. The work is illustrated by excellent steel engravings of the principal buildings, and has an excellent map of the city. Mr. Belden's opportunities for the preparation of such a work have been, to our certain knowledge, at least equal to those of any one of our citizens. It is a small volume, very neatly printed.

The Fountain of Living Waters. In a series of sketches. By a Layman. New York: George P. Putnam. 1850.

This work is a series of religious meditations, illustrated by a very excellent wood cut of a scene on the North River.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Thomas Chalmers: By his son-in-law, the Rev. WILLIAM HANNA, L. L. D. In 3 volumes. Vol 1. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers. 1850.

The publishers have sent us the first volume of this work. It will be received with interest by the Evangelical churches of America. It is unnecessary here to attempt any criticism, or to make any remark upon it.

A Romance of the Sea Serpent; or, the Icthyosaurus. Also, a collection of the Ancient and Modern Authorities, with Letters from Distinguished Merchants, and Men of Science. Cambridge: John Bartlett. 1849.

This is a very droll book: one-third story, onethird poetry, and the rest notes. We presume that every person who has ever seen the sea serpent, off Manhattan, or elsewhere, will desire to have a look at this book about him.

The Mirror of the Patent Office, and National Cyclopedia of Improvements of the City of Washington: William Greer & Co., No. 177 Broadway, New York. 1849.

This, as its name purports, is a quarto publication, coming out in numbers, and containing illuştrated descriptions of new and important inven. tions.

[We are compelled, for want of room, to omit noticing a number of valuable books, sent us by the publishers, but which we reserve for our succeeding number.]